North Sligo win Connacht Cross Country
NORTH Sligo AC won team gold medals in the Connacht Cross Country league which finished with the holding of the 3rd and final leg in Kiltoom Roscommon on Saturday. On a perfect day for Cross Country on a testing course there were some great efforts from North Sligo athletes. Feidhlim McGowan won the men’s race with a great performance,
McGowan was always in the top four of the race for the first 6k but he put went into top gear on the last 2k and pulled away to win by over 100m, this means that McGowan is the overall league individual finishing 4th in the 1st leg and winning the 2nd and 3rd legs.
Eamon McAndrew put in a strong performance finishing 6th with Aidan McMoreland putting in another fine effort to finish 7th in the race and win the 1st masters prize,
Ray Gillen who has had a rejuvenated season showed great grit with 13th place finish in Saturday’s race to win the bronze medal in the masters section.
Donal Egan just recovered from his marathon efforts in Dubin 3 weeks ago finished 14th,David McCullagh put in another fine effort with a 24th place finish, Cathal Burns found it difficult to come to terms with the sticky conditions and the onset of a cold did not help matters but he should be happy with his 34th position and Sean McCaffrey running his first Cross Country in a long time showed good stamina to finish 35th.The North Sligo Men’s teams finished 1st in the league with 84pts,Sligo 2nd 169pts,Castlebar 3rd 213pts GCH,Swinford and Longford 4th 5th and 6th.Sarah Healy led the North Sligo women’s team home with a great 2nd place finish this was one of Healy’s best performances in the past 2years and she is coming into great form again after the birth of her baby last year,
Marita McMorrow has been a revelation this past year going from fun runner to competitive athlete she has embraced the running scene and continues to improve with each outing,her 6th place finish in Saturdays race shows how far she has come,she has won bronze in the masters section of the league with 3 fine performances,Patricia Lee ran an excellent race to show great improvement to finish 9th,Mary Gilmartin put in another great effort to get in as fourth scorer for the team in 12th position and Fiona Langan backed up the team with a solid 17th position The womens team finished 1st in the league with 84pts,Swinford were 2nd 134pts and Sligo rd with 147pts.